Montoya Signs
After being unable to come to terms last summer, the Rangers finally got their man. The team officially announced today that they have signed goaltender Al Montoya to a three year entry level contract. The 20 year old netminder will forego his senior year with the University of Michigan and will likely split duties with Swedish prospect Henrik Lundqvist in Hartford.
After an impressive rookie season and gold medal performance at the World Junior Championships in 2003, Montoya struggled somewhat last year and admitted to a lack of focus at times. The Michigan goalie equaled his career high of 30 wins with the team last year, but had a disappointing .895 save percentage and saw his goals against average creep up over 2.50 for the first time in his career and came on top of a sub-par performance in the World Juniors as the United States failed to win a medal.